Markets across the continent opened sharply higher on Wednesday
morning and broadly held onto those gains all day. All of
Europe's biggest share indexes closed in the green, with the CAC
40 in France leading the way, up by 1.66% to 4,439 points. On top
of the charts in France were construction firm Technip, up 6.2%,
and building material manufacturer Lafargeholcim, up 5.95%.

Here's how the CAC looked:

Investing.com

And here's the European scoreboard:

Germany's DAX — up 1.59%

Britain's FTSE 100 — up 1.56%

Spain's IBEX 35 — up 0.65%

Italy's FTSE MIB — up 1.01%

The Netherlands' AEX — up 1.28%

Belgium's BEL 20 — up 1.07%

Euro Stoxx 50 broad index — up 1.32%

On a sector-by-sector basis, miners had the best day, thanks
largely to the weakness in the dollar caused by Yellen's
comments. In the mining and commodity heavy FTSE 100, miners
dominated the upper echelons. Anglo American, which has seen
shares more than double since hitting an all-time low in January,
closed up by 12.2% on the day, while Rio Tinto and BHP
Billiton both gained more than 6%. Here's how Anglo American
looked at the close:

Investing.com

Elsewhere in the markets, gold lost around 0.85% having
jumped earlier in the day, while both major oil benchmarks were
up on the day. At the European close, Brent was trading at around
$40.16 per barrel, while WTI was up 0.5% to $38.48.